A word from USDA

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal Care program appreciates the opportunity to respond to this scenario. First, we wish to make clear that our focus during an inspection is on assessing the compliance of a facility with the Animal Welfare Act and regulations. It is not customary for an inspector to attribute a facility’s failure to seek appropriate follow up care to an attending veterinarian or to accuse a medical professional of negligence in an inspection report. Accordingly, we do not believe this fictitious scenario accurately depicts the USDA inspection process.

A facility utilizing a part-time attending veterinarian to provide regular visits fulfills the regulatory requirements for an attending veterinarian¹. The regulations under 9 CFR §2.33- Attending veterinarian and adequate veterinary care require: appropriate methods to treat injuries, daily observations to assess animal health and well-being, guidance to personnel involved in the care of the animals, and adequate pre- and post-procedural care in accordance with established veterinary medical and nursing procedures². In regards to daily observations, if not performed by the attending veterinarian, a mechanism of direct and frequent communication is required so that accurate information on problems can be conveyed to the attending veterinarian in a timely manner³.

In this scenario, the veterinarian instructed the staff to contact him if any problems became apparent. The staff did not follow these instructions which led to the veterinarian never being informed about the change in the animal’s condition (infection). This resulted in euthanasia at the investigator’s request because the animal became unusable for experiment. Adequate veterinary care was not provided because status information was not conveyed in a timely manner to the veterinarian. The appropriate citation for this circumstance would have been failure to provide a mechanism for direct and frequent communication with the attending veterinarian about the animal’s condition³.

In the event a facility wishes to appeal an inspection report, the written appeal is to be submitted to the appropriate regional office within 21 days of receipt of the report⁴.